[ LETTER ]

Defense Is the Wrong Name

Published: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at 12:08 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at 12:08 a.m.

The United States Department of Defense is a misnomer. It is really the department of war, as it was when I was young many decades ago.

We spend trillions of dollars under the pretense that it is for national defense. The United States has not fought a war in defense since the one started by the Japanese against us in 1941. We have seemingly, almost eagerly, initiated or become involved in several protracted wars in other parts of the world, notably Asia, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and in little wars such as in Granada and Haiti.

There seems to be almost no limit to what our government will appropriate, so long as it is labeled defense. Of course, we need to consider that word, but in more than a half century no nation or combination of nations has attacked the United States.

Currently in defense against these nonthreats we spend more than the next 10 other major nations of the world combined.

Has anyone noticed the effect on our national debt?

If we changed the name of Department of Defense back to the Department of War, perhaps we taxpayers would start asking ourselves whether we really need a war in Afghanistan against the al-Qaida gang, or in Iraq against the purported weapons of mass destruction, or in the civil war in Vietnam on some discredited domino theory or in Korea to keep that peninsula divided into two nations.

We need another president like Dwight Eisenhower to remind and warn us of the cost and dangers of the military industrial complex.

<p>The United States Department of Defense is a misnomer. It is really the department of war, as it was when I was young many decades ago.</p><p>We spend trillions of dollars under the pretense that it is for national defense. The United States has not fought a war in defense since the one started by the Japanese against us in 1941. We have seemingly, almost eagerly, initiated or become involved in several protracted wars in other parts of the world, notably Asia, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and in little wars such as in Granada and Haiti.</p><p>There seems to be almost no limit to what our government will appropriate, so long as it is labeled defense. Of course, we need to consider that word, but in more than a half century no nation or combination of nations has attacked the United States.</p><p>Currently in defense against these nonthreats we spend more than the next 10 other major nations of the world combined.</p><p>Has anyone noticed the effect on our national debt?</p><p>If we changed the name of Department of Defense back to the Department of War, perhaps we taxpayers would start asking ourselves whether we really need a war in Afghanistan against the al-Qaida gang, or in Iraq against the purported weapons of mass destruction, or in the civil war in Vietnam on some discredited domino theory or in Korea to keep that peninsula divided into two nations.</p><p>We need another president like Dwight Eisenhower to remind and warn us of the cost and dangers of the military industrial complex.</p><p>ARLAND MEADE</p><p>Bartow</p>